The Hits Keep Coming: Chris Dodd Was For AIG Bonuses Before He Was Against Them

Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) on Monday night floated the idea of taxing American International Group (AIG: 0.9194, 0.1393, 17.86%) bonus recipients so the government could recoup some or all of the $450 million the company is paying to employees in its financial products unit. Within hours, the idea spread to both houses of Congress, with lawmakers proposing an AIG bonus tax.

The move represents somewhat of an about-face for the Senator.

While the Senate was constructing the $787 billion stimulus last month, Dodd added an executive-compensation restriction to the bill. That amendment provides an “exception for contractually obligated bonuses agreed on before Feb. 11, 2009” — which exempts the very AIG bonuses Dodd and others are now seeking to tax.

The amendment made it into the final version of the bill, and is law.

Separately, Sen. Dodd was AIG’s largest single recipient of campaign donations during the 2008 election cycle with $103,100, according to opensecrets.org.

I’d laugh but this isn’t funny… This whole faux outrage over retention bonuses at AIG is nothing more than an attempt to distract us from Obama’s falling poll numbers and asinine proposals like this.

As a resident of Connecticut all I can say about Chris Dodd is… May the curse of Mary Malone and her nine blind illegitimate children chase him so far over the hills of Damnation that the Lord himself can’t find him with a telescope. The man is an embarrassment to the good people of this state.